Beer and the Wonders of Brewing

Teach me to live that I may fear
The grave as little as my beer.

Strong Beer, Robert Graves

For at least six millennia mankind has known the joys--as well as the potential pains--of beer. Of all alcoholic beverages it is the least socially stigmatised, and, if only in terms of quantity, the most consumed. Not too strong, palatable with only a little initial practise, and variously refreshing or warming, cheering or consoling, beer has understandably achieved an almost world-wide popularity. And it is easy to see why breweries are big business.

While brewing is today a very high-tech industry, its origins, like those of cooking food, are lost in time, yet presumably accidental. A quantity of grain, a little past its best, a lump of bread--anything starchy in fact--carelessly dropped in some water with the right mix of micro-organisms in a moderately warm climate. Later, someone--more likely a group of people--inadvertently drinks the water, a new feeling, disconcerting at first, but oddly pleasurable. Investigation, further experimentation. The hypothesis is vague, necessarily, but plausible.

For a fact we know that as early as 4000 BC, beer was made and enjoyed by the Sumerians, and as many as sixteen different kinds, too, according to their records. Carvings on Egyptian tombs--still a few thousand years BC--depict with some detail the various stages of the brewing process. And thousands of miles to the east, there are written records from two thousand years ago referring to the Japanese drink sake, produced in a very similar way, using rice instead of the more typically Western barley or wheat.

David Henley / CPA

Anticipating a cool, refreshing glass, Hedjaz railway buffet car.

From those early times, at least in the Western world, the history of beer and brewing moves away from its origins somewhat. The Greeks and Romans were little interested in the product of the grain, favouring that of the grape. Greek legend records that Dionysus, god of wine and wild revelry, fled from Mesopotamia in disgust because beer was the only drink available there. The brewing techniques so long developed in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean did not disappear though; they were merely displaced north--to where the grape was reluctant to grow.

The basic brewing process hasn't changed much since its initial discovery, and despite the vast commercialism of a modern brewery the whole journey from grain to glass remains a natural one. Indeed, the only real improvements have been in speed and hygiene, undoubtedly prompted mainly by economic concerns. While the chemical changes involved are complex and still beyond the chemist's complete understanding, it is not difficult to follow the linear process through--and interestingly, alcohol is late to put in an appearance.

The first stage of the brewing process is malting, by which the starches of the raw grain begin their conversion into fermentable sugars. Enzymes which occur naturally during the germination of the grain change the starch in a series of reactions called 'modification'. It is the brewers job to arrest the process at the correct moment, according to what kind of beer is being made. The resulting malt is then slowly dried and cured. It can, if desired, be stored before passing along to the next stage.

The malt is next milled to break up the modified starch particles. This milled malt, known as 'grist', is mixed with water, and kept at warm temperatures--a process known as mashing. During this time, the conversion of starch into sugars is completed. The husks and other solids are separated out of the mash 'tun' and discarded. The remaining liquid--the 'wort'--is then boiled to arrest the enzymatic activity. At this stage hops are normally added for their characteristic bitter flavour.

Finally, the brew is ready for the last and most crucial stage--fermentation. Yeast from a previous fermentation is introduced, and all being well the wonders begin. After a few days there can be as many as ten million yeast cells per millilitre of wort, each cell converting sugar into alcohol--and generating heat. Once the nascent beer has reached a certain temperature, normally about five degrees centigrade above its starting point, most of the yeast is removed. The remaining yeast allows for a slow second fermentation, purging the beer of some less desirable compounds. This fermentation continues in the bottle or the cask, under control, to carbonate the beer. At last, the beer is ready.

David Henley / CPA

Beer.

Variations at each stage of the brewing process account for the infinite variety of available beers and cognate drinks. Stouts, bitters, lagers, porters, all are produced in similar fashion. But so too is Japanese sake, using rice as already mentioned, and its Chinese and Korean relatives, samshu and suk. In Russia, kvass is brewed from rye bread, and traditional Mexican pulque takes the starchy sap of the agave plant--a kind of cactus--as its starting point. African variants on the theme are practically innumerable.

To date, scientists have found more than four hundred organic compounds responsible for the taste of a typical beer, and their search is not yet over. Amazingly, most of these chemicals are created solely in the fermentation process, by-products of the strange quasi-life of yeast. But of course one doesn't need to be a scientist to appreciate the complexities and subtleties of the beer taste. Stop by any bar and there is sure to be a bottle or glass of this venerable and fascinating brew just waiting to be quaffed and, most importantly, enjoyed.

This article was first published in CPA Media's "Across Cultures" series in Asiana Magazine.

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